In
the Rotarian spirit, when two cities
have a link, whether it is by folklore
or of the soul, they declare themselves
sister cities. Goya, in the province
of Corrientes, next to the deep river
Paraná, and San Juan Capistrano,
always and each year exactly on the
same day, the day of Saint Joseph, in
mid-morning.

When
the first band arrives, some one hundred
swallows, as for two hundred swallows,
as for two hundred years, the bells
of the old Franciscan monastery ring
while the swallows descend to a sow
altitude, reconnoitering the terrain
to the delight of thousands of tourists,
among them many children that had arrived
in order to be present for their arrival.

They
arrive in search of the sunny valleys
of California, the immense vineyards
that produce strong wine, the "Italy
– Swiss wine" and the interminable
fruit orchards in the welcoming slopes
of the Sierras, in the Andes of the
north.

In
truth, they have been arriving for centuries
and millennia to fulfill faithfully
their biologic destiny: to live and
reproduce themselves in benign climates
within a harmonious scheme of control
and regulation of insects and plagues.
That is their destiny in the integral
plan of nature.

Feeding
themselves on insects, spiders, flies,
worms, the reason for their incredible
voracity is the following:

To
feed themselves, in order to live
and reproduce.

To
store fat in their tissues, which
will be their fuel for the return
flight.

For
centuries the origin of the migration
was unknown in Capistrano, as if to
say that the airport of origin was unknown,
until in the present century the origin
of migration was able to be determined
exactly: Goya, Corrientes, Argentina.

24,000
Kilometers! (That’s 15,000 miles)

I
studied their flights and routes and
have the certainty that they complete
a fantastic flight of 12,000-kilometer
(7,500 miles) to Capistrano, and completing
the 24,000 kms. With a return flight,
almost a complete flight around the
planet earth.

Under
the Roman arches of the corridors of
the Franciscan monastery of Capistrano,
that has more than three centuries of
existence, and dates from the Spanish
conquest, a lay brother helped me in
this investigation.

Thus
I found that the swallows leave Goya
on the 18th day of February,
at dawn, in successive bands, and that
they arrive all together in Capistrano
on the 19th day of March,
taking exactly thirty days to cover
12,000 kms.

During
the flight, that is to say, during the
thirty days that the voyage lasts, they
do not eat or drink, since they fly
from dawn to sunset in order not to
waste time.

They
fly at an altitude of more than 2,ooo
kms. (6,600 ft.) In order to take advantage
of the fast and favorable currents (tail
winds) and, besides, because at that
altitude they avoid plundering birds.

Their
flight plan lasts fifteen hours of flight
daily, in steps of 450 kms. With a velocity
of 30 kms. (18 miles) per hour, always
taking advantage of the wines.

The
flight that begins in Goya follows the
valleys of the Paraná and Paraguay
rivers, until reaching Lake Mirin, following
the dynamic currents that produce he
large masses of air of the south that
move towards the equator.

After
Mirin, their route changes to the west,
in search of the valleys of the Andes
and, later crossing the equator, they
go to a higher flight altitude in order
to take advantage of the dynamic currents
that produce the large masses of air
that move towards the North Pole.

They
do not cross the Andes until they have
reached the Gulf of Mexico, and by way
of the Yucatan they look for the west
and the Pacific, in order to fly along
the shore of Baja California and enter
the valley of Riverside.

Already
in California, and after the reception
of the ringing of the friendly bells,
they become a decisive factor in the
complex establishing of a healthy environmental
balance of diseases, regulating the
harvest of fruits, while accumulating
reserves of fat that will be the fuel
for the return flight.

Fuel

The
fat that accumulates in their tussues
is equivalent to the combustible liquid
of the tank of an airplane.

For
their long flight, the same coming as
returning (12,000 kms. Each way), of
30 journeys of 450 kms., each swallow
stores during his stop 120 grams of
fat, that is a "full tank."
As a pilot at the command of a long
distance flight would say.

It
is significant that during the 120 days
that their insecticidal campaign lasts,
according to my calculations, he swallow
must ingest 1,000 insects daily, between
flies, spiders and worms.

A
detail in order to appreciate the significance
of the number mentioned above for the
biological and environmental equilibrium,
is that a single band of swallows destroys,
in one campaign, a billion insects,
a result that no insecticide would be
able to do better, and all without causing
the least danger, neither to man nor
to his fauna nor flora.

It
is a work unpublished and exceptional,
carried out equally as much in Goya
as in Capistrano.

The
range of its "full tank" of
120 grams of fat, is no less than 12,000
kms. At an hourly velocity of 30 kms.
With a consumption per kilometer of0.01
grams. A medium jet (727) would have
required 100 thousand kilograms of "JPI",
a fuel especially for urbines, whose
estimated costs is 60 cents per liter.

I
remained intrigued with all that I investigated
in Capistrano and returned to Nevada
and my work table, in order to study
the principals of this fantastic flight.’

I
was interested in the relation of the
Operational Performances between a swallow
flying a "Long Range" (long
distance) and a medium jet, also on
"Long Range."

Therefore
I calculated and compared fat-calories
with JPI-calories and found that the
ratio of the PDM, (maximum weight of
[decolaje] of a Boeing 737 and a swallow
is simply incredible.

The
jet taking the 737 (two turbines, low
consumption), burns 15 kilograms (minimum)
per kilometer, while the swallow burns
only 0.01 grams of fat, signifying that
the consumption of the jet is a million
times greater.

GOYA
AIRPORT, CORRIENTES

Origin
of the Flight: Goya, Corrientes,
Argentina

Final
destination. Capistrano, California,
USA

DATA

Distance
of total flight . . . 12,000 km.

Distance
of each segment . . . 450 km.

Number
of segments . . . 30

Type
of flight . . . . . VFR (daylight)

Total
Real time of flight. . 450 hours

Total
calendar time . . . 30 days

Total
fuel consumption . . . 120 gm.

Fuel
performance . . . 0.01 gm. Grams
per kilometer

Cruising
velocity . . . . 30 km./hour

P.M.D.
(maximum weight at takeoff). 280
gm.

Of
course, all does not end here.

The
Boeing engineers have made their things
well enough, and with the new equipment
for the year 2000, with new motors,
wings of fibers in the third millennium
they will bring about an unbelievable
race in order to catch up to the performance
of the swallows. You should not forget,
dear reader, that for the engineers
of Boeing, it was only several decades
ago that they did their apprenticeship,
while for the birds from the Mesozioc
Age, 65 million years ago, the perfecting
of it took them 63 million years, until
the Cenozoic Age. Besides, the jet,
a gigantic metallic swallow, takes you,
by the same rout (almost) with a velocity
and comfort that the atavistic urgency
of the swallows does not demand, but
that man requests.

We
believe that in interesting, in any
case, to take a trip to Capistrano in
March in order to feel, as I, the emotion
of the bells ringing as centuries ago,
to greet the arrival of the Correntians
swallows. And, to have more reason for
believing in God and feeling happy to
live on the planet earth, and to enjoy
together the children that congregate
there every year, not being subjugated
by the incredible efficiency of the
swallows in fantastic flight but for
the poetic magic of the dream of an
even more incredible than the flight
itself.